Whew! What a week! Work has been very busy--I've had a hard time sitting
down long enough to send any e-mail, but I sure do have a lot to say! First
of all, I've about decided I'm going to do what I should have done in the
first place: turn the list over to the ROOTS-L server and get it automated.
It seems no one in the group (least of all me) has a "complete and correct"
(if there is indeed such a thing!) copy of the mailing list. We've outgrown
our training pants, which is what I predicted might happen when I started the
list. I feel that this will be the best thing for everyone; it will ensure
that everyone will get all of the mail they want (and not miss anything
important; sorry Eula and James and Judy and Charles and probably others,
too) and stop receiving it when they don't want it anymore (I've noticed
several names still on most everyone's lists that actually asked "out"
several months ago!) Also, all messages will be archived and available on
the ROOTS-L web site. I'll be looking into all of this pretty soon.

(By the way, for all of you missed my Homecoming message, I will resend it.)

Now, to straighten out some confusion (I hope):

ITEM #1: John Dutton the Elder, James Dutton of Walker County, and too many
Thomas Duttons!

When I first started researching the Duttons, the first thing I heard from
all the older relatives was that there were "three" of them that came down
from North Carolina--some said "three brothers", some said "three cousins",
some said "three" not related at all. Even after I finally got a hold of
Zachariah Dutton's will and showed them there were in fact more than three,
some of them still say, "No, that's not right--there were three of them." The
names of "the three", as told differently by different relatives, were either
William, Johnny, and Tommy; or William, Edmund, and Tommy. Needless to say,
until I did find Zachariah's will, I was pretty confused.

In the very beginning, it was easy to believe that there were three. William
Dutton we knew about. My Great-Grandfather Dan Dutton knew he was the
grandson of William Dutton--Dan's father was James Zachary Dutton, and his
father was William Dutton, "who came down from North Carolina." Granddaddy
Dan was born, raised, and raised his own children in the house that William
Dutton built; naturally, this part of his history was all around him. But in
the years since the Duttons came to Alabama, the various groups of them had
grown further and further apart; only the families of a handful had remained
in the Danville area, where Dan Dutton spent his entire life. He was the
sole survivor of the clan of William Dutton; aside from himself, he knew only
of his close cousins in the families of Edmund Dutton and Thomas Dutton (both
of whom he was almost old enough to remember). There were three. It was
clear to him that his Grandfather William Dutton and Edmund Dutton were
brothers, but the third, Thomas, didn't quite fit in. The name of John
Dutton was nearly forgotten...

Until I found him on the 1850 census--the first census I looked at, since I
knew it was the earliest to include the names of the entire families. I was
busy trying to connect "the three" I knew of--as brothers, cousins, or
whatever--and I quickly learned that it wasn't quite that simple. In Morgan
County, I found my William Dutton--a great bit older than I expected him to
be--and next door to him, Thomas Dutton. Still a beginner at reading archaic
script, I actually returned to the library several times to look up this one
census record, totally unconvinced by what I seemed to have found--especially
the ages of the people involved:

What confused me the most was the older couple, John and Omah Dutton, who
seemed to be listed right in the middle of Thomas Dutton's household. It was
customary for the census taker to list other relatives besides
children--fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, etc.--at the end of the
record, after the head of household's own children. So I was for a while
uncertain if what I was seeing was correct: Thomas Dutton's parents. If
Thomas Dutton's father was John Dutton, who was about the same age as William
Dutton, it destroyed immediately the theory that it was as simple as "there
were three brothers". But one thing was clear: William Dutton and John Dutton
were brothers, and Thomas Dutton was the son of John Dutton.

After several months of very successful research in Morgan County, I decided
to "expand my search". I went to the library and looked up Duttons on the
census in other counties of Alabama--and that's when I discovered James
Dutton in Walker County. It excited me that he was born in North
Carolina--and that he was close to the age of Thomas Dutton, who I knew to be
the son of John Dutton. I was still very reluctant to declare he was a
relative--but the evidence kept mounting up. By this time, I had traced back
to Zachariah Dutton in North Carolina--and the next exciting piece of
information about James Dutton of Walker County was this: living in the
household with him was a man named Zachariah Dutton (who I soon determined to
be the son of Jarrott Dutton, based on the research of Darlene Cole.) I now
had a definite tie to my Dutton family--but more was to come. I discovered a
marriage record in Lawrence County for a James Dutton to a Mary Irwin, dated
18 Jul 1832--about the time the James and Mary in Walker County would have
been married--and to top it off, there was an Elizabeth Irwin living in the
household with them in 1860! I soon found out that there was a great
migration of families during the 1830's from Lawrence and Morgan Counties to
the Walker County area--it seemed this James Dutton was a part of it. This
migration also included a number of other families tied in with the Duttons
in Morgan and Lawrence Counties--and then tied in again with James Dutton's
family in Walker County: Kitchens, Sparks, Brown, and Irwin, to name a few.
I was now firmly convinced that this James Dutton
was a relative, but I wasn't exactly sure how until I sat down and thought
about it.

It was a simple proof. It was already all but proven that James Dutton of
Walker County was a descendant of Zachariah Dutton; he was born in North
Carolina at a time when Zachariah was the only Dutton in North Carolina, and
he was married in Lawrence County, Alabama, at a time when only Zachariah's
family was in the area. The only thing to determine was which of Zachariah's
sons was his father. I made out a proof sheet much like this:

That doesn't leave many options open at all. Now, by no means is it PROVEN
that John and Omah are the parents of James Dutton of Walker County, but it
seems to fit the bill quite nicely, in a situation in which nothing else
does. John Dutton had two sons on the 1810 N.C. census--presumably, Thomas
and James. (Also a daughter, by the way, who hasn't been accounted for.) I'm
convinced.

Now, to the point where most researchers get confused (including me)--the
OTHER Samuel Dutton in Lawrence County--where "the Thomas, son of Samuel"
Eula's researcher friend was referring to comes from. After much time,
research, and groaning on the subject, I decided that he doesn't fit in at
all. He gets here too early, he leaves too early, and his children have no
contact with any of Zachariah's descendants. Initially, (and quite
naturally), we had assumed that he was Zachariah's son Samuel mentioned in
his will, but that was before we found Samuel Sneed Dutton in Anson County,
N.C. (ancestor of James and Judy), who has been proven to be Zachariah's son.
Samuel Dutton in Lawrence County in fact did not come from North Carolina at
all, or even Maryland--from the looks of it, Pennsylvania. This Samuel
Dutton lived in Kentucky before he came to Alabama about 1818--he was married
in Washington Co., Ky. on 5 Nov 1798 to Ellender Owens. His will and many
estate and land records are on file in Lawrence County, Alabama, where he
died in 1823, and he did in fact have a son named Thomas--it is this Thomas
who we believe is the ancestor of our Sonya Mims here. But I've studied all
of the estate records, and the following is very clear: Thomas Dutton, son of
Samuel Dutton, was born ca. 1799 in Kentucky--NOT North Carolina; he married
in Kentucky about 1818/19 to Mary Brooks--NOT Elizabeth Kitchens; he had one
son, Thomas Jr., born ca. 1820/21 in Lawrence Co., Ala. (that would be 5 May
1821 if this is Sonya's ancestor--he died 18 Mar 1876 in Brady, Texas)--NOT
the nine listed on the census with our Thomas, all very documented; and
lastly, Thomas Dutton, Sr., son of Samuel Dutton of Lawrence County, died in
his twenties, ca. 1827, leaving a vast fortune to his only son; his widow
Mary remarried to Samuel White in 1829, who became guardian of her son Thomas
Dutton Jr. -- while OUR Thomas Dutton, clearly the son of John Dutton and the
brother of James, lived into his seventies, and was widely known and
remembered by many. The following sketch, a little humorous, paints a
portrait of "Tom" Dutton, a lovable, unforgettable old man. It appeared in
The Alabama Enquirer (much later known as The Hartselle Enquirer, out of
Hartselle, Morgan County, Ala.) on 12 Dec 1889:

"MR. TOM DUTTON lived near Basham's Gap at the home of his father, who was a
pioneer of the country. Tom was a good economist, and a successful man. He
was a peculiar and eccentric man. Never was a member of the church, but once
every year, he would get happy and shout at church. Many of you readers will
call to mind how, often they have heard his sudden, shrill voice of rapture,
just as the preacher was earnest in the preservation of a live sermon. How
he would go to the pulpit, then along the pews and shake hands and call on
all to help him praise the Lord. The old man has long ago crossed the river,
and met under the "shade of the trees" his sainted wife who went before him."

[Betty Dutton Woodworth, of our group, by the way, is a descendant of Thomas
Dutton, through his daughter Mary Frances Dutton, who married her second
cousin (actually, her father's first cousin) Stephen Penn Dutton, son of
Edmund Dutton.]

As far as the rumors of James Dutton of Walker County being "James Tommy
Dutton", I've heard many of the same from a lot of different researchers. I
find that unlikely. It seems to me that somewhere along the line, someone got
confused. Having heard of both James Dutton and Tommy Dutton, but not being
able to "explain" where the Tommy Dutton came from, the two were merged
somehow; or someone just plain forgot. With very little written record of
James Dutton for more than a hundred years, it would not be hard. James
Dutton has no tombstone by which to remember him by; as far as I know, there
was no family Bible; census records weren't readily available until the
1940's, at best, and weren't of much interest to most people anyway; and land
records and estate records were few, as the Walker County Courthouse was
burned a number of times during and after the Civil War--the ones that
survived were a little sketchy, and again, pretty boring stuff to the common
man. All people had to go on, as far as James Dutton was concerned, was oral
tradition, which as we know, is easily distorted. Still, I'd be interested
to hear what people have to say about "James Tommy Dutton". Oh, no--it looks
as if I've written another book. Hope none of you are asleep.

Eula, I'm so pleased to hear you got some information on the Irwin family.
You have the names of Mary Irwin's parents? The past couple of months I've
been working extremely hard at the Lawrence County Archives, trying to piece
together this family, without much luck at at all. During one of my recent
visits to Walker County, I had a revelation about this and a number of the
other families connected to it and to the Duttons: they're all related to
each other, in kind of an endless spiral. It makes me dizzy just thinking
about it. Here's a brief sample:

James Matlock KITCHENS married Sarah BROWN.
Thomas BROWN, the brother of Sarah BROWN, married Lovey IRWIN.
Mary IRWIN, (who is suspect may be) the sister of Lovey IRWIN, married James
DUTTON.
Thomas DUTTON, the brother of James DUTTON, married Elizabeth KITCHENS,
the daughter of James Matlock KITCHENS.

Care for some more? There's plenty of it, and it gets deeper:

Mary "Polly" KITCHENS, the sister of Elizabeth KITCHENS and the daughter of
James Matlock KITCHENS, married Harvey William HAMILTON.
Christopher Columbus HAMILTON, their son, married Elizabeth Ann DUTTON, the
son of James DUTTON and Mary IRWIN.
Thomas F. DUTTON, brother of Elizabeth Ann DUTTON and son of James DUTTON and
Mary IRWIN, married Louisa E. CARMICHAEL, whose father was Francis Marion
CARMICHAEL and whose mother was Sarah HAMILTON, the daughter of Harvey
William HAMILTON and Mary "Polly" KITCHENS.
Frances KITCHENS, the sister of Elizabeth KITCHENS and Mary "Polly" KITCHENS,
married Samuel SPARKS.
Elijah SPARKS, the brother of Samuel SPARKS, married Elizabeth BROWN, the
daughter of Thomas BROWN (brother of Sarah BROWN, who married James Matlock
KITCHENS) and Lovey IRWIN.
William SPARKS, the brother of Samuel and Elijah SPARKS, married Eliza Elvira
HOGAN, the daughter of Richard HOGAN and Rachel KELSO.
Mary Hogan, the brother of Richard HOGAN, married William DUTTON, the brother
of John DUTTON, who was the father of Thomas DUTTON who married Elizabeth
KITCHENS and James Dutton who married Mary IRWIN.

Are you dizzy yet?

Anyway, all the families in the area of Morgan and Lawrence Counties, and
even more so in Walker County, are related and inter-related and inter-woven,
and it's a mess-- although, a very fun mess-- to untangle. I would be very
happy to hear what you have found on the IRWIN family, Eula; perhaps I can
either prove or disprove some of my endless assumptions and speculations.

Also, along this same line: I believe the BROWN family which keeps fitting
in here is the very same Brown family from which Margaret's John B. BROWN
(who married Mary DUTTON, daughter of Jarrett) descends. In John Dombhart's
HISTORY OF WALKER COUNTY, ALA., it is stated that Sarah BROWN, who married
James Matlock KITCHENS, had at least two siblings: Thomas BROWN who married
Lovey IRWIN, and Frances BROWN who married John Daniel RANDOLPH. I will call
this "Group 1". In the book ITAWAMBA SETTLERS, an article on the BROWN family
which Margaret sent me states that John B. BROWN had at least three siblings:
William BROWN (who the article was actually about), who by the way married a
Sarah KITCHENS, perhaps a sister (or maybe a niece) of James Matlock
KITCHENS; LaFayette BROWN, and Ellen BROWN, who married Alex IRWIN (spelled
ERWIN here, but it's all the same.) Ah, the plot thickens... This is "Group
2" -- but they may actually be one and the same. I looked up BROWN at the
Lawrence County Archives, and found a lot more than I could deal with; still,
there are a lot of apparent connections. I found a Samuel BROWN who married
in 1825 to a Hannah ALLEY--the bondsman was Barton HAMILTON (am I right in
assuming the father of Harvey William HAMILTON?), and the marriage was
performed by James KITCHENS. There is also a Levi BROWN on the census in
Itawamba Co., Miss. close to William BROWN, who ought to be a brother of that
group. "Group 3" is a group of BROWNS closely related to the Samuel IRWIN
family (the one branch of the IRWIN family I've managed to document). Samuel
BROWN, born 12 Aug 1771, died 31 Jan 1848, very well could be the father or
grandfather of all of the BROWNs I just mentioned above. He, and many
relatives of both the Brown and Irwin families, are buried in the Brown
Cemetery in Moulton, Lawrence County, Alabama.

Okay, okay, I've think I've written enough for one day. But one more thing...
:)

ITEM #3: The Search for Stephen Penn Dutton Continues

As most of you know, Betty Woodworth is descended from Stephen Penn Dutton,
born Oct 1834, the son of Edmund Dutton. He, his 2nd wife, and a number of
children moved ca. 1881 from Morgan County, Alabama to Wise County, Texas.
There are six children of Stephen and his 1st wife, Mary Frances, listed on
the census in Morgan County: (1) George, born ca. 1864, (2) Martin Luther,
born ca. 1866, (3) Margaret E. born. ca. 1868, (4) John C., born 1870, (5)
James A., born 1873, and (6) William W. Dutton, born ca. 1875. Mary Frances
died in 1877, and in 1878 Stephen remarried to her sister, Mrs. Sarah Jane
(Dutton) Witt-Turrentine (as I said above, Mary Frances and Sarah Jane were
the daughters of Thomas Dutton and Elizabeth Kitchens.) Stephen and Sarah are
listed on the 1880 census in Morgan County, presumably a short time before
they left for Texas. Between the 1870 and 1880 censuses, one child, the
oldest, George, disappears from the census; it is assumed that he died young.
The others, though, should have gone with their father to Texas--but nothing
is known of any of them except James Arthur, who is Betty Woodworth's
great-grandfather. It is only he that appears on the 1900 Texas census with
his father. Also, Sarah Jane had a son from her 2nd marriage to Mr. Richard
J. Turrentine: Stephen Henry Turrentine, born ca. 1867; I assume he would
have gone to Texas also. Stephen and Sarah Dutton had one child together,
also: Mary L. Dutton, born Sep 1881 in Arkansas, according to the 1900
census.

Stephen Penn Dutton went to Texas with his brother, Alexander D. Dutton, and
sister, Margaret Elizabeth (DUTTON) Hughes, who married George S. Hughes
(they are the ancestors of Janice Roper and Charles van Bebber). George and
Margaret Hughes are buried in the Cottondale Cemetery in Wise County, Texas.
Since we met, Woody and Betty Woodworth and I have been frantically trying to
find the grave sites of Stephen Penn Dutton and his family, and Alexander D.
Dutton and his family. Stephen Penn Dutton appears on the 1910 census soundex
in Parker County, Texas, living with a Witt family (Sarah Jane Dutton's 1st
husband was a Witt). Unfortunately, I don't have access to the complete 1910
Parker County Census, so that's all I know. James Arthur Dutton had moved to
Oklahoma by the early 1910's, where much of his family still resides.

I sent off late last year to the Texas Bureau of Vital Statistics to receive
the death certificates of Stephen Penn Dutton, Sarah Jane Dutton, Alexander
D. Dutton, and Martha Jane Dutton (Alexander's wife). Not one of them came
back to me; none of them were on file. I did get a certificate for a Sarah
Jane Dutton from Louisiana, but that's not really what I wanted. I had
assumed that they all would have died in Texas, but more and more I'm
beginning to think otherwise. What am I saying? What if they went to
Oklahoma with their children? It's a likely possibility, and a very logical
assumption in the first place; I don't know why it never occurred to me
before.

So, the night before last, I got online and surfed for information, something
I haven't had time to do in a long while. To my great delight, a lot more
information is coming online than was there just a short year ago. I was
searching the USGenWeb FTP Archives, and I searched Oklahoma for DUTTON.
Turned up a handful of hits; I didn't really expect to find anything. But I
did--and what a rush. I couldn't believe what I was seeing--I nearly shouted
for joy, even though it was 2 o' clock in the morning. It was a dream come
true--really. I have actually dreamed about this. In the cemetery index of
Love County, Oklahoma, right on the Texas border, I found the graves of
Alexander and Martha Jane Dutton. No, no sign of Stephen Penn Dutton yet,
but I feel that we're closer than ever before.

Alexander Dutton was born 28 Dec 1823, and died 21 Jun 1904--I did not have
these dates before. Martha Jane was born 1841, and died 1931. They are
buried in the Leon Cemetery, at a community called Leon in Love County. Their
son Dallas Dutton and his family is buried not far away in the Lakeview
Cemetery. Alexander died before death certificates were instituted in
Oklahoma in October 1908, but Martha, at the ripe old age of nearly 90, would
surely have one. Even more importantly: if Stephen Penn Dutton was still
alive after 1910, and did eventually die in Oklahoma as I suspect he did,
there is a great chance that he would have one as well. It would give his
date of death, place of death, and possibly place of burial. I have all the
information I need to send off to for a death record search, and I'm ready to
do it. But it occurred to me, with Woody and Betty being right in the middle
of Oklahoma, they would have a lot easier time get a hold of them. According
to the information I got online, copies of death certificates are available
at the Oklahoma State Department of Health Vital Records Service. They're $10
a shot, but at least in person, ya'll, you'd have the luxury of knowing if
they're on file before you have to pay.

Well, I've really said about all I have to say in a day. I've been at this
most of the morning; I hope it doesn't take you as long to read it as it took
me to write it. It's time for me to get ready for work.